There Oughta Be a Law

 I can’t think of anything uglier than what happened right after  the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barely hours after the reports of her passing, there was already discussion about filling the vacant court seat. That part, unfortunately, was to be expected, but Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said there would be a vote soon after the President announced his nomination for replacement. Many of the same Republicans who blocked President Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to the court in 2016 on the grounds that approving a new justice should wait until a new President took charge, are now in a hurry to fill Ginsburg’s seat before a possible change of administration in January.

For Democrats, there is really only one hope here. Enough Republican senators must see the unfairness in filling the seat early, based on the precedent of delay set in the Garland situation. Unlike the complex arguments in the presidential impeachment trial, this simple principle of fairness may persuade a few more Republican senators to accept a delay.

Then there is the President’s hint that he will cling to power if mail-in election ballots are ruled invalid – which he expects that a full Supreme Court with a solid conservative majority would do if he doesn’t win. Will that be a bridge too far for some GOP senators?

For many Republicans, there is another matter, which may trump, if you’ll pardon the expression, all those issues: life and death. Another conservative justice is needed on the court, they feel, to help overturn Roe v. Wade and protect unborn children from abortion.

The  court vacancy problem can likely only be solved in the future by codifying the timeline in law, like requiring that a Supreme Court nominee in an election year be confirmed, say, at least 60 days before Election Day. After that, any court vacancy would stay open until the next administration took charge.

Adding justices to the Supreme Court is not a good fix for the court’s ideological imbalances. Whichever party is on the outs would push for  more judges. The nine justices there now have enough trouble getting through their seasonal docket as it is.

But here we are today. All is fair in love and war, and those who hold the power get to use it, and who’s to stop them? We are at war in this country, ideologically speaking. Let’s really try to keep it…uh…civil this time around.

 

Thought Policing

 

A top official in the Department of Health and Human Services has had to take a leave of absence after he urged Trump supporters to buy ammunition to protect themselves from the left-wing rebellion if President Trump wins re-election. He also accused scientists in the Centers for Disease Control of “sedition.” How many times has that word been used in 200 years? It was not an official statement, just his personal Facebook rant. He has since apologized.

The big problem with our culture today is that there is now a superhighway between the brain and the mouth, or the keyboard, if you prefer. People who make public these kinds of thoughts assume they are speaking for many others too afraid to voice them. Some listeners may actually call it refreshing, But most of us keep unorthodox beliefs to ourselves. We know when to express them and when not to. We may hold back out of fear of exposure, or we may not want to cause hurt to others – or both.

Most of us have learned, if we don’t know instinctively already, what we can say and to whom. Some of our deepest and most sensitive thoughts are reserved for professionals, like therapists or clergy members. Some are safe to share with intimate friends or close family members. Still others are safe for workmates or those at a cocktail party. But strangely, many apparently think social media platforms are safe places to sound off.

Some think that the First Amendment gives us the right to say whatever we want, whenever and wherever. Mainly, the Constitution prevents the government from censoring us, but it doesn’t free us from the social or legal consequences of what we say. And, of course, it’s also about who is speaking. The only good news is that on social media, the crazies in positions of power reveal themselves.

But for the most part, I think the takeaway is that while we are responsible for what we say, our heads (and our hearts, for that matter) are, thankfully, the last private places on Earth where our thoughts are safe – at least until Google or whoever perfects that VR eyewear that can read minds. But I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

 

 

We Called Him Rabbi Joe

  

Today’s commentary is for Palm Springs, California, where I used to live and work, so for some of you in other places, please  indulge me.

It’s about Rabbi Joseph Hurwitz, who died last week at age 91. He was leader of the city’s Jewish community for some 40 years. I’m originally from New York, so I did have some preconceived notions of what a rabbi was: an old man with a long beard and his nose in the Torah. Rabbi Joe, that was not.

I arrived in Palm Springs in the 1970s. I was a radio journalist, and  he was among the first people I was introduced to. Rabbi Joe, I soon found, was an accomplished comic. When it came to “roasting” anybody prominent in town, the job required one of two people, or both: Rabbi Joe Hurwitz and City Councilman Frank Purcell. Rabbi Joe didn’t mind appreciating his own jokes, with that signature squeaky laugh of his.

But he had strong opinions! As a newsperson, I did the annual interview with him during the winter holiday season, and he had a big problem with Jewish families who had what were called “Hanukkah bushes” in their homes to give the kids a little Christmas-tree experience, Not good, he said.

Among the major annual events was an April  march along Alejo Road to the then-brand new Temple Isaiah to commemorate the Holocaust, with many local survivors wearing signs with the names of the Nazi concentration camps they were in. On a lighter note, the rabbi was a key supporter of 1990’s state ballot proposition establishing protection for California mountain lions.

When the temple opened, he made sure it was equipped with one of the best echo-cancelling sound systems in town, and among the regular events was a lecture series that brought in people like Walter Cronkite, Carl Bernstein, and Joan Rivers. Rabbi Joe showed me where to plug my tape recorder into the system so I’d get the best sound for use on the radio the next morning.

In 1988, the rabbi arranged for me to join a group of journalists from all over the country to travel to Israel for a tour of the region at the height of a Palestinian uprising. The trip was one of the great experiences of my life.

Several years before I left town to move to Northern California, there was a Man of the Year lunch for Rabbi Joe, put on by the Chamber of Commerce. Many spoke his praises, but we all eagerly awaited his turn. I remember him telling the following joke: “Yesterday I was called on to perform a bris. I carry an emergency pager, but during those ceremonies, I always turn it off. Some things, you just don’t want to rush.”

If you’re Jewish, you are probably laughing. I’m not going to tell the rest of you what a “bris” is. You’ll have to look that up!

 

Thickening Plots

OK, so now planeloads of anarchist thugs in dark uniforms will be landing in troubled cities to cause more trouble. Really? I was just thinking, if I were an anarchist thug trying to spread chaos, the last thing I’d want to do is put on a uniform, certainly the same color. Too much order involved.But that’s just me.

It seems our President loves conspiracy theories like this, and sadly, he is not alone. As we all understand, we can thank the Internet, because now, everyone has access to a giant megaphone and can connect with thousands of fellow believers and recruit more. But conspiracy worries are not new, as our fairly recent history demonstrates.

It wasn’t all that long ago that some of us were nervous about the Bilderbergers, a private group of elites who first met at a hotel in the Netherlands in 1957 to talk about world peace. Then there is the Council on Foreign Relations, or CFR, a similar US-based organization and think tank. Those on the outside have always been sure that these groups have been secretly planning to establish a dreaded One-World Government.

Remember the militia movement of the 1990s? These folks had to arm themselves, put on camo, and play war games to be ready when the fleets of unmarked black helicopters with government forces aboard touched down in their communities to take away their guns.

But let’s be honest. We love this stuff. Hollywood has been absolutely no help in calming us down, of course, and some TV shows and movies can be uncannily prescient. What do we do in our real life, though,  about the spread of conspiracy theories, or overblown worries about calamities that haven’t happened yet? There’s a current debate about whether debunking these things quashes them or adds to their spread.

Conspiracy theories are built on a grain of truth. There really are Bilderbergers and the CFR. Joe Biden is a real presidential candidate, but is he a Trojan Horse for Antifa? Mr. Trump is a real President. Is he an actual Russian agent? It’s all about data points. The only resolution is hard evidence that reaches the widest audience. As they used to say on the X-Files, The Truth Is Out There (Oops, maybe not the best example).

I’m reminded of a scene from a horror movie of the 1930s, in which one English insane asylum attendant says to his colleague, “Sometimes, I think everyone in this world is crazy, except for me, and for you. And then again, I has me doubts about YOU!”